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A “Brief” Harmonic Analysis of Eric Whitacre’s A Boy & A Girl

By

Jesse A. Kiser

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Introduction

My first exposure to Eric Whitacre’s music was at the annual North Carolina Music

Educators Association conference in November of 2013 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It

was there that I had the opportunity to witness and listen to the High Point University Chamber

Choir perform Whitacre’s A Boy & A Girl. I had certainly heard the name ‘Eric Whitacre’ prior

to that day, but upon hearing that piece it was almost as if I had been able to “put a face to the

name,” or in this case “music to the name.” I was so attracted to the way the piece would swell

and grow just to decrescendo immediately and how tightly interwoven the harmonies were. I fell

in love with his music and began to analyze some of his works and chord structures and my

fascination of his music continued to grow. His music still amazes me and continues to be an

influence and inspiration of my own compositional output.

I even had the opportunity to meet him when he came to Wingate University in April

2014 to conduct the Wingate University Singers when they performed his pieces Sleep and The

Seal Lullaby. He also did a Q&A session before the performance and I was able to gain some

serious insight on his compositional techniques and approach. That was also the first time that I

had been exposed to his style of conducting which is essentially an art in itself.

I am writing this paper primarily to help collect my thoughts upon completing a chord by

chord analysis of the unaccompanied SATB choral work A Boy & A Girl by esteemed composer

Eric Whitacre. This piece was commissioned by the 2002 California All-State Choir for Dr. Ron

Kean, Director of Choral Activities at Bakersfield College in California. A Boy & A Girl is a

strophic work and the text comes from the late Mexican poet Octavio Paz (1914-1998) and his

poem Los Novios, which could be translated as “The Lovers.” The poem was originally in

Spanish, was translated by Muriel Rukeyser, and was then set to music by Eric Whitacre. This

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work is just one of the few Octavio Paz poems that Whitacre has set, others including Water

Night, Cloudburst, and, lesser known, Little Birds. Whitacre says of Paz’s poetry:

“The poetry of Octavio Paz is a composer’s dream. The music seems to set itself

(without the usual struggle that invariably accompanies this task) and the process

feels more like cleaning the oils from an ancient canvas to reveal the hidden

music than composing.” (Whitacre, About, 2010)

Whitacre goes on to discuss, quite simply, his take of Los Novios and how he decided to

set the poem:

“A Boy and A Girl is such a tender, delicate, exquisite poem; I simply tried to

quiet myself as much as possible and find the music hidden within the words.”

(Whitacre, About, 2010)

This “quietness” that Whitacre strives for is heard throughout the piece, given to us in the

form of many rests and, with the tempo marking that is suggested (Rubato, e molto teneramente;

or “freedom of time, and very tenderly”), these rests certainly give the piece a lot of breathing

room to make it as “tender, delicate, and exquisite” as Whitacre had intended. The piece even

ends with a verse of quiet humming and is preceded by the words “giving silence for silence.”

(Whitacre, A Boy and A Girl, 2008) This technique is called text painting; a technique of writing

music that reflects the literal meaning of a song. Techniques such as Rubato and text painting are

both used frequently in the “musical language” of Eric Whitacre. These materials are used in the

same way that his distinct and unique chord structures, which will be analyzed and discussed

throughout this paper, are used to create his soaring soundscapes.

Who is Eric Whitacre?

Born on January 2, 1970 in Reno, Nevada, Eric Whitacre was well versed in music from

very early on in his life. He took piano lessons when he was very young and played keyboard for

an electronic rock band in his teenage years. He even played trumpet in a marching band

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throughout middle and high school. Once in college at University of Nevada at Las Vegas

(UNLV) he shifted his educational focus towards music education. He joined choir although he

was not able to read music at the time. One of the first pieces that he sang with his collegiate

choir was Mozart’s Requiem and it was this piece of music that Whitacre claims “changed his

life.” (Whitacre, Biography, 2014)

Whitacre began to study choral conducting with his choir director, David Weiller, and

composition with Virko Baley, a Ukrainian composer and professor at UNLV, and switched his

major to composition. Whitacre began composing pieces for choirs and ensembles at UNLV and

high schools in the surrounding area (Hall, 2012). Whitacre’s first composition, at the age of 21,

was a setting of the Edmund Waller poem Go, Lovely Rose. This composition was presented as a

gift to Weiller, premiered by a choir at UNLV, and, later that same year, became Whitacre’s first

piece to be published. Whitacre received his BA in Music in 1995. Upon graduating from

UNLV, Whitacre began to study composition at Juilliard with Pulitzer Prize and five-time

Grammy winner John Corigliano and received his Master of Music Degree in 1997. At age 23 he

moved to Los Angeles following the great success of his first piece for wind ensemble, Ghost

Train. (Whitacre, Biography, 2014)

Since the start of Whitacre’s career, his compositional output has been geared primarily

towards choir, but still includes pieces for brass ensemble, orchestra, solo voice, concert band,

musical theater, and even collaborated with renowned film composer Hans Zimmer for the

soundtrack of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Some of Whitacre’s instrumental

works were originally choral pieces, but would later be transcribed for orchestra or other

instrumental ensembles and vice versa. For example, his SATB choral work Alleluia was

originally titled October and was written for concert band in 2000, but was transcribed for SATB

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choir and premiered by the Sidney Sussex Chapel Choir on June 25th, 2011. Whitacre formed his

own choir deemed The Eric Whitacre Singers in 2010. The group released their first album Light

& Gold in October 2010, won a Grammy for Best Choral Performance in 2012, and released a

second album titled Water Night was released in April 2012.

Whitacre’s notoriety could also be attributed to his “Virtual Choir” projects that he

started in 2009. His Virtual Choir compiles videos of singers from countries all over the world

into a single choir performing one of Whitacre’s pieces. He began in 2009 with Sleep and Lux

Aurumque (which included 185 singers from 12 countries and has received over 4.5 million

views on YouTube) and then Sleep again in 2010. By the time his Virtual Choir 2.0 was

launched in April 2011 the Virtual Choir had grown to over 2,000 voices from 58 countries and,

just a year later, his third Virtual Choir, Water Night, included 3,746 voices from 73 countries

and was shown at the exact moment of the 100 year anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic in

remembrance of the disaster. One of his most recent, and by far his most successful, Virtual

Choirs sang an arrangement of Whitacre’s piece Bliss (renamed as Fly to Paradise, and was

originally from his “techno opera” titled Paradise Lost: Shadows & Wings) which included

8,409 videos from 5,095 people in 101 different countries. The piece was premiered at the

Coronation Festival at Buckingham Palace and on BBC1 (a British radio broadcast) on July 11,

2013.

Whitacre has become Composer-in-Residence at Sidney Sussex College in Cambridge,

UK. In April 2014 he became Artist-in-Residence for a week long residency at the Minnestoa

Orchestra’s Orchestra Hall and he will be returning to this position for another stint in 2015.

Whitacre continues to strive towards globalizing music education by Skyping and visiting with

choirs and classrooms from across the globe, giving master classes to various ensembles, and

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continues to compose for his own Eric Whitacre Singers. Whitacre currently lives in London

with his wife, Grammy award-winning soprano Hila Plitmann, and their son. (Whitacre,

Biography, 2014)

Chord Types & Structures

Whitacre is most well-known for his complex harmonies. He employs quartal, quintal,

and, most often, secundal harmonies to make his chords shimmer and these harmonies tend to

have the greatest “effect” in his choral works. He typically arranges his quasi-diatonic clusters in

successive increasing or decreasing density. For example, starting in a normal four voice

(soprano, alto, tenor, and bass) chord he has the individual voices divide, known as divisi, and

split into more than just one part per voice. This is seen most famously in his piece When David

Heard when the voices split into 18 parts, forming a massively dense chord to achieve the full

effect of the text he is emphasizing. Many of his chords could be analyzed as seventh or ninth

chords, but his quintessential chord which he employs in almost all of his compositions is a root-

position major triad with an added major second and/or perfect fourth. We will see many

examples of this in A Boy & A Girl.

There is also a small dispute in whether or not these additional tones in the triad are

“added” tones or “suspended” tones. A suspended tone is normally inserted into a triad in place

of the third in the chord that determines the quality and makes a triad major or minor. A

suspended tone also has a tendency to resolve in a specific way. Two of the most common

suspensions are the “sus4” and the “sus2” chords. In a “sus4” chord the fourth has the tendency

to resolve down to the third, for example, a triad spelled C, F, G resolves to C, E, G. On the other

hand, the bass note in a “sus2” chord tends to resolve down forming a major triad in first

inversion, for example a triad spelled C, D, G resolves to B, D, G. Since Whitacre does not

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resolve these tones that he adds to the triads they cannot necessarily be analyzed as a

“suspended” chord. I prefer to use the term “added” because in the triads Whitacre uses the root,

third, and fifth are already present with the second or fourth added to the existing chord with a

quality already established (major or minor). I also tend to lean towards referring to these added

seconds or fourths as ninths or elevenths, respectively, because in most cases the added tone is

over an octave above the root of the triad resulting in a compound interval, thus the ninth and

eleventh and occasionally a thirteenth (or a sixth if the tone is within an octave from the root).

Figure 1 - A Boy & A Girl, m.16-20

In most cases Whitacre voices these “added” chords in an open fifth (root and fifth)

between the bass and tenor, or bass divisi, while the upper voices (tenor, in the cases that there is

divisi in the bass voice, alto, and soprano) repeat notes within the triad and then present the

added tones. For example, in Figure 1, the chord on the downbeat of m.20 is an A major triad

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with an added ninth (analyzed as Aadd9) and is voiced as previously described. This voicing is

also seen both chords in m.17 (Cadd11 and Bbadd♯11, respectively) and on the downbeat of

m.19 (Fmaj9, or F∆9, the F major triad is present plus the major seventh and major ninth). You

can clearly see the open fifth in the bass, while the upper voices multiply the tones within the

triad with the added tone(s).

Another voicing Whitacre uses, and the voicing that is most prominent in A Boy & A

Girl, is an open fifth between the bass and tenor while the soprano and alto voices are clashing

by a major or minor second that include the third of the triad and the added tone. In A Boy & A

Girl there is an array of triads in this voicing (I would approximate half of the chords featured

within this work) and they all move parallel to each other.

Tonality

These is no key signature in the piece A Boy & A Girl. One could hypothesize that the

piece is in C major because there is no key signature and because the piece begins on a C major

triad with an added ninth (Cadd9). One could also argue that it is not in C major due to the E-

flats, A-flats, and B-flats found throughout the piece. However, these three pitches that are found

in C minor are all used as roots for a major triad, known as a chromatic mediant (discussed

later), usually with an added ninth or eleventh.

I conclude that the piece is in C major because it can easily be heard in C major and there

are also a couple of cadences that, when analyzed, make the most sense in C major. As seen in

Figure 2 (below), m.9 gives us a clear V → vi → IV → I (Gadd9 → Amadd9 → Fadd9 →

Cadd9) plagal cadence in C major. The plagal cadence is favored throughout this piece and is

seen at the end of several phrases, including the final cadence at the end of the piece which

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resolves a Cadd9 to a Gadd9. Although C major may be heard for the duration of the work, the

final two chords could certainly be analyzed as a half cadence (I → V) in C major or as a plagal

cadence (IV → I) in G major with the Cadd9 serving as a pivot chord during a modulation: a

tonic chord (I) in the key of C major or as a subdominant (IV) in the key of G major.

Figure 2 - A Boy & A Girl, m.8-10

Song Structure

A Boy & A Girl is a three verse, modified strophic piece meaning that each verse contains

different lyrics than the previous verse while the musical content is very similar, but different in

various ways (Hall, 2012). In regards to form it could easily be organized as A → A′ → A″ with

a short coda that is essentially an abbreviated version of the first verse. This could be stated as a

fourth verse, but in accordance with the meaning of the text I would say that this is a

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continuation of the third and final verse. The final words sung in the piece are “giving silence for

silence” and the short coda is hummed quietly, resulting in the text painting technique as

mentioned before. Since the quiet humming could be emphasizing the “silence” that is a part of

the third verse I would consider the coda to simply be a part of the third verse.

Verse One

Figure 3 - A Boy & A Girl, m.1-3

The verses in this work could be broken down and viewed in one of two ways: 1. you

could use the Rubato in the tempo marking with the rests that are placed frequently throughout

the music to signify your phrases and do many short phrases, or 2. you could see each verse as

one long phrase within itself. From a conducting standpoint, it would make the most sense to use

the rests to identify phrases because from a music theorist/analytical standpoint there are no clear

cadences to mark the end of a phrase except for prior to the end of the first verse. This cadence is

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seen in m.9-10 (Figure 2, see “Tonality”) and the first verse cadences again and ends just three

measures later in m.13, seen in Figure 5 (see “Verse Two”). As mentioned earlier, the ending of

the piece is an abbreviation of the first verse and the cadence that see we see end the piece is the

same cadence that ends the first verse. This is the ambiguous cadence that could be analyzed as a

half cadence in C major or as a plagal cadence in G major.

Figure 3 shows us the opening of the piece starting on a Cadd9 chord and we can clearly

see the dynamic markings as well as the rests. Once again, from a conducting standpoint this

should help show how to view the phrases as well as how to shape them in your gesture in

accordance to the crescendos and the decrescendos. You can also see that the second chord is an

Ebadd9 chord, being built off of an E-flat. In the key of C major, this could be analyzed as a

chromatic mediant, meaning an altered mediant (iii or III in a major or minor tonality,

respectively) or submediant (vi or VI in a major or minor tonality, respectively) chord, with a

roman numeral of bIII. The third chord is a Fadd9 chord giving us a simple I → bIII → IV

progression.

Figure 4 - A Boy & A Girl, m.4-7

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There is another chromatic mediant on the downbeat of m.5 (Figure 4) which is an

Abadd9 chord giving us a bVI chord in the key of C major. This is also the only time we see the

bVI chromatic mediant in this piece. Every other time we see a submediant chord in this piece it

is either vi (A minor) or VI (A major) within the tonality of C major.

Verse Two

Figure 5 - A Boy & A Girl, m.11-15

The second verse begins in m.14 (Figure 5) with the same three-chord progression (I →

bIII → IV) as the first verse before proceeding to a C major triad in second inversion and then to

a root position C major triad. Next, in m.16 (Figure 1, see “Chord Types & Structures”) we see

the texture of the piece changing. Up to this point the texture has been fairly thin and in an even,

four-part voicing, but here Whitacre is breaking the voices into six, seven, and eight parts. The

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density of the chords is increasing to emphasize the text and there is more dynamic contrast to

help build the piece up to its climax in the next verse.

The piece continues with this newly increased density in texture while harmonically the

piece stays about the same (more root position triads with added ninths, elevenths, and

occasionally a sharp eleventh). However, at the end of the second verse we see an odd and

almost jazz-like progression starting on the downbeat of m.25 in Figure 6 (Em → A7/G →

Aadd9 → Dadd9 → Eadd9 → Badd9) and then a plagal cadence in the B major tonality at the

tail end of that progression before immediately moving to a C minor triad with an added ninth

(Cmadd9) on beat two of m.28 in the third verse. Just as he did in the end of the first verse,

Whitacre uses a plagal cadence to signify the ending of a verse.

Figure 6 - A Boy & A Girl, m.25-29

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Verse Three & Ending

Verse three is the apex of the piece and where we see the most text painting. Text within

this verse involves the boy and the girl dying and being buried underground together. This results

in Whitacre starting the opening phrase of the final verse with a minor triad (Cmadd9) rather

than a major, but he still opens the first phrase with the same progression just as he has in the

preceding verses with an Ebadd9 and Fadd9 following the initial Cmadd9. This simple three

chord progression (I or i → bIII → IV) could be seen as a leitmotif, meaning a reoccurring theme

that is associated with a particular person or idea, for the boy and the girl.

Figure 7 - A Boy & A Girl, m.30-33

We see something fairly interesting on the third and fourth beat of m.30: a Gadd11 chord

moving to a Gsus4 chord that does not resolve. The bass and tenor hold an open fifth harmony

(G and D) over the duration of both beats while the alto and soprano sing a B-natural and C,

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respectively, on beat three and then slur to a C and D forming the Gsus4 chord, which Whitacre

cuts off almost immediately so there is no feeling of a possible resolution. He proceeds to a root

position A minor triad in the pickup to m.32 and then hits one of his quintessential root position

major triads with an added ninth and added eleventh, analyzed as Fadd9add11. He then returns to

an A minor triad on the third beat of the same measure and immediately doubles the density to a

D9/A (that’s a D dominant seventh chord with a major ninth on top and an A in the bass) in

seven voices on the downbeat of m.33.

A rest with a fermata over it is given to us on beat three immediately following this huge

dominant chord leaving the listener wondering if he will resolve it to possibly a G major triad, a

Gadd9 or add11 in the case of Whitacre, or will he resolve it to something unusual? Instead he

begins another phrase on an E minor triad and moves back to the clear C major tonality that was

heard at the beginning of the piece and sounds a I → V → vi → IV → I (Cadd9 → Gadd9 →

Amadd9 → Fadd9 → Cadd9) progression that moves into something different from anything

else in the piece. At the end of the word “kissing” in m.35 (Figure 8, below) Whitacre sweeps

through another I → V → vi → IV (Cadd9 → Gsus4 → Am → Fadd9) progression and then

ends with an odd half cadence (Cadd11 → Gsus4 → Gadd11 → Gsus4).

Whitacre moves from the half cadence in m.37 (Figure 9, below) to an A minor triad (vi)

in root position and uses this as a pickup to, my favorite chord in the entire piece, a huge, eight-

part F∆9 (F major seventh chord with a major ninth on top) in root position on the first syllable

of the word “silence.” This chord’s harmonies are so tightly wound you can feel it about to

resolve inward, despite it being a major ninth chord rather than a dominant ninth. You can feel

the chord about to collapse to a major triad when Whitacre suddenly moves it to a Gsus4 and this

resolution is so uncanny, yet beautiful, the listener, such as myself, can hardly believe that

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Whitacre was able to pull off a resolution like that. This resolution takes place on the second

syllable of the word “silence,” thus achieving the most beautiful resolution on the most powerful

word in the text. When Whitacre gets to the second “silence” in the phrase “giving silence for

silence” he repeats this resolution, F∆9 → Gsus4, before repeating it for a third time beginning

the humming coda that I have already touched on. This two chord resolution, while sounding

very similar to some form of a perfect authentic cadence, is actually only a half cadence (IV →

V) in the key of C major.

Figure 8 - A Boy & A Girl, m.34-37

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Figure 9 - A Boy & A Girl, m.38-42

The coda (Figure 10, below), as I have already mentioned a few times, is merely an

abbreviated quotation of the first verse. The final phrase takes the first three measures and

amalgamates it with the last four measures of the first verse (Hall, 2012). Although Whitacre

may have adjusted the tonality slightly here and there, for example, the plagal cadence in B

major at the end of the second verse, repeating the beginning in the original C major tonality as

the coda is an effective move to show an approach to a final resolution. This resolution, as

previously stated, could either be analyzed as a half cadence in C major or a plagal cadence in G

major, thus leaving the listener on a Gadd9 chord wondering if it will resolve. Rather, it just

floats there until the conductor cuts off, ending the piece.

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Figure 10 - A Boy & A Girl, m.43-52 (Pardon the sloppy handwriting on the score)

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Conclusions

In this piece we have seen a multitude of “classic” Whitacre techniques: Rubato, constant

changing of dynamics, tightly-wound harmonies in pan-diatonic clusters, text painting, and his

twisted view on establishing a tonal center and sticking to it. Considering this work has many of

the same progressions and melodies throughout (a modified strophic work), one could possibly

argue this is a typical piece of 21st century minimalism. According to Dr. Richard E. Rodda,

“minimalist music is based upon the repetition of slowly changing common chords and common

tone in steady rhythm, often overlaid with a lyrical melody in long, arching phrases.” I would say

this definition of minimalism is a fair application to this work by Whitacre.

With unique chord structures, unorthodox chord progressions, and beautiful text painting,

I would offer that this is a phenomenal piece and a music theorists dream, or at least a dream for

me. People say that once you begin to dissect something you start to lose interest. Deeply

analyzing a piece of music, for example. I disagree. Upon my analysis of this piece and writing

this “brief” thesis, I have found that my appreciation and love for this piece has grown. I feel like

I have been able to get inside of Whitacre’s head and look at this piece through his eyes.

Certainly, I cannot understand it in the same way that he does, but I at least have something

tangible that gives me a start and shows me where to look.

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Works Cited

Hall, A. P. (2012, May). Added-Tone Sonorities in the Choral Music of Eric Whitacre. St. Louis,

Missouri: Angela Paige Minahan Hall. Retrieved November 28, 2014, from

http://openscholarship.wustl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1736&context=etd

Whitacre, E. (2008). A Boy and A Girl. London: Chester Music.

Whitacre, E. (2010). About. In E. Whitacre, The Eric Whitacre Collection (p. ii; vii). London:

Chester Music.

Whitacre, E. (2014). Biography. Retrieved from Eric Whitacre:

http://ericwhitacre.com/biography